1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a method and system for transmitting information to a user of a distributed data processing system and in particular to a method and system for transmitting help information to a user of an application. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for transmitting help information to a user on a distributed data processing system using a multimedia context-sensitive real-time-help mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the modern world. The introduction of the so-called "personal" computer has greatly enhanced the availability of the computing power to many people. As these computers become more common-place, a greater number of applications for this computing power is available for users both at work and at home.
The applications currently available provide a variety of mechanisms to display help information to a user of the application. For example, a number of word processing applications provide help information in real time to the context that the user is using the application. For example, if a user in a word processing application is within the "block mode" of the application and requests help, then the application will display help information about the "block mode" function. Recently, some applications provide pre-recorded multimedia presentations that may be played upon a user requesting help from the application.
As applications become more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to predefine all situations and contexts in which an application may be used. Often times, the problem may be occurring because of hardware characteristics or interference from other software applications, or a combination of both hardware and software configurations.
Current software vendors provide hot-lines and help-desk numbers by which a user may telephone and seek "expert" help regarding their particular problem with an application. Many times these help sessions result in a resolution of the problem for the particular user. Other users, however, are not privy to the techniques that were employed to resolve the problem. As a result, other users will often call the help-desk with the identical or similar problem.
Many of these help-desk services charge fees for their assistance. Consequently, inefficient use of a help-desk may occur when an "expert" provides help to a number of users for the same problem. In addition, often times the user does not see the keystrokes or the expert's screen during the help session. As a result, more time may be required to solve the problem because the expert has to describe the keystrokes and the resulting response from the application to the user. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus for providing context sensitive real-time help to a user with respect to context-sensitive applications.